Should I buy an HD-DVD Player ?
 

I just bought a new HDTV. I will be getting the hd cable hooked up sometime this week. Now I am wondering if I should get an HD dvd player. The problem is that I think there are more negatives than positives for the immediate future.

HD dvd players seem to be pretty expensive since they are still new. How many hd dvds are there ? Should I wait until more dvds are released and the price goes down or should I upgrade now ? Thoughts ?

What are you waiting for???...buy it!

You can find it as low as $475!!!
All the small problems have been fixed with firmware amd there are no big problems.

There's over 50 titles available with more coming.

You're going to pat yourself on the back when you see your first HD disc. Also, you can upconvert all your SDs to 1080i if you go thru HDMI...and you think they look good, wait until you see them in 1080i!!!

You won't be disappointed, you'll be happy!!!

well if you go through the continental airlines offer it is around 363 I believe and you can get it other places for a bit over $400 so I dont think it is too expensive. I personally bought it since I wanted to have HD-DVD but you just need to decide if it is worth it to you or if you can wait till there are more titles available, but I dont think the price will get too much lower in the near future since $400 is pretty good for what you are getting.

Eh, it's up to the buyer. Really, buyer beware. Will HD-DVD win the format war? It seems to be the current favorite. You don't want to plunker down that much money for a format that's going to end up being a waste of money. The PS3 still isn't out yet so... who knows what the future of the HD market holds on a disc? I want to give in myself, really bad. BUT, I know it may be a bad investment at this point in time. You can buy a good upscaling DVD player for 150 bucks and use that for a while. But you're not going to get THAT much better of a picture with upscaling if your'e already using 480p with component. Some people swear by it, some say it's not a big deal.

Get one.
Even if HD DVD somehow loses to the bumbling Blu-Ray format, you will still have yourself one hell of an upconverting player, not to mention whatever HD DVD's you purchased along the way.

HD DVD is pretty amazing. If enough titles are out there that you would want I definitely say come aboard. The player cost is really very affordable for new technology and the disc prices are around $20 if you buy from Amazon.

Unfortunately, may tv is only a 720. It was all I could afford. Will that be a problem if I get a hd dvd player ? Also, I see the HDMI option on my tv. What is that for and how would I upgrade my current collection ?

Feel free to move this to the correct forum.

Your 720p TV will handle the 1080i video from the player just fine. It will still look amazing. Just hook everything up through HDMI. However, keep the players output at 1080i and let your TV handle the conversion to 720P.

Upgrading your collection will be up to you. I have sold a lot of my discs to DVD Planet or on Half.com, but I'm not going to upgrade every single disc I own on HD DVD. Many are just fine on DVD.

I would get one, it has the best picture right now, and as the format war is going right now I would have a hard time of blue ray winning unless PS3 sells like mad

I'm still wary of a format war and quite frankly not convinced of the need for me to buy into a new format even if there weren't. Too many issues still not hammered out (region coding, image constraint), for me to believe it's worth my time and money at this point.

Yes. Buy one. The Toshiba and HD DVD will give you the best picture and sound quality available right now.

Use the Continental Airlines deal, get the player for $363 shipped and enjoy. A good DVD player is expensive, more than this HD-DVD player, so the price is not high IMHO. HD-DVD is better than BD at this point. BD may have potential, but do you really want to spend twice as much and a product with potential. Spend a few days reading in the HD forum and see if you want to get into it. There are a lot of pros and cons to each format, but the enjoyment and experience many are getting from the Toshiba is making a bunch of people sitting on the fence jump in a little earlier than they planned.

Remember, the Toshiba is a top notch upscaling DVD player and comparable to high end audiophile CD players, so even if HD-DVD died tomorrow and you only had a few HD-DVD discs, you still have a quality component. HD-DVD is going to stick around though, the sales seem to be quite good.

Any deals for those that don't have the continental airmiles??

Join us! You should pick up a Toshiba for sure. HD DVD is really the way to go as far as PQ and AQ are concerned. And even if, (God forbid -pray- ), HD DVD does not work out, you'll still have one hell of an upconverting player on your hands. So in my mind, it's a win win situation.

I'd personally wait it out. Yeah, the HD-DVD discs look incredible, there's absolutely no denying that. If you have the change just laying around, then jump on it!

However, if you are planning out an investment, you might just want to consider a really nice up-converting SD player w/ HDMI out. Then you'll be able to enjoy your current discs in higher clarity until the "war" has subsided, then once the clear victor is atop the mountain (or once there are quality players that translate both discs or whatever the scenario pans out to be), you could make an investment then - especially since it sounds like you just made a worthy investment in recent history on your TV.

Just my $0.02. Also, I haven't seen the quality of the up-conversion on HD-DVD - it might just be worth it in that aspect. :shrug:

Good luck deciding.

As others said, it's a decision up to the individual buyer and their budget. If you have an HDTV (which you do) and can afford one, then I'd probably say go for it.

The format war is of some concern, but HD-DVD looks like the safer bet if you want to jump in early and just buy one format player.

For everyone saying wait till there is a winner, many industry insiders seem to expect both formats to survive. Discussion on the subject abounds in different threads in the HD forum and in the AVS forums. Plus, the Toshiba is a quality upconverting player with HDMI - I personally have not used many DVD players with upconversion, but those that have seem to rank the Toshiba as one of the best.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

Also, something to keep in mind is that Toshiba has been releasing updates which improve the HD-DVD player pretty often and have corrected many of the odd problems reported by those with the first machines.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=21310

If you do not have any skymiles (continental deal), simply create an account and subscribe to a magazine through the skymiles deals and the points will be credited in about 8-10 days not weeks. It only takes a $5 magazine subscription to get the needed 100 points. There is a whole thread dedicated to this deal in the HD forum.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=470228

The current crop of titles sucks and my SD player does upconversion through HDMI so I'm gonna wait for a while.

Thanks, speedy

"Ray" sucks?
"Serenity"
"Pitch Black"
"Sleepy Hollow"
"Apollo 13"
"Traffic"
"Enter the Dragon"
"Animal House"
"Full Metal Jacket"
"Goodfellas"
"Syriana"
"The Fugitive"
"Training Day"
"Blazing Saddles"
"Lethal Weapon"
"Dazed And Confused"
"Cinderella Man"
"Jarhead"
"Million Dollar Baby"
"Seabiscuit"

I could keep going. These titles "suck"?!?!?! Weren't several of them nominated for like, "Best Picture"... They might not be everyone's cup of tea but overall...


:)

That list became worthless when you listed "Serenity". Worst movie ever.

I would wait to see who wins the format war.

Good thing everyone is allowed to have opinions. There are a lot of people that love that film.

Nice. Considering that "Serenity" has an 80% positive rating at Rottentomatoes.com including an 87% poitive rating from the "Cream of the Crop" film critics, it seems that you're opinion is way in the minority...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/serenity/
Maybe your taste in movies is "worthless"
And even if you thought "serenity" was awful, it's inclusion on that list negates everything else? All the other titles, some of which were nominated for Best Picture?
Huh...?
Interesting Logic.
So lessee, if you go to a restaurant that has one dish you don't like then everything on the menu is suddenly awful?

That could be years if ever. People who think there will be a clear winner anytime in the near future are sadly mistaken. The longer people wait, the less likely a winner is to emerge.